#NASA discovers Earth-like planet orbiting 'cousin' of Sun

MIAMI (AFP) - Astronomers hunting for another Earth have found what may be the closest match yet, a potentially rocky planet circling its star at the same distance as the Earth orbits the Sun, Nasa said Thursday. Not only is this planet squarely in the Goldilocks zone - where life could exist because it is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water - its star looks like an older cousin of our Sun, the US space agency said. That means the planet, which is 1,400 light-years away, could offer a glimpse into the Earth's apocalyptic future, scientists said. Known as Kepler 452b, the planet was detected by the US space agency's Kepler Space Telescope, which has been hunting for other worlds like ours since 2009. "Kepler 452b is orbiting a close cousin of our Sun, but one that is 1.5 billion years older," Nasa said in a statement. Its star is 4 per cent more massive tha...